The Municipal Waste Collection and Transportation Management (WCTM) project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, has developed a new monitoring and supervision system at the city’s dumpsites. This consists of the electronic reading of the vehicle’s license plate number and radio frequency identification (RFID), along with the installation of RF sensor plates in all transportation vehicles, the installation of surveillance cameras in dispatchers' offices, and the development of a GPS-integrated monitoring system. All of these measures were successfully implemented in 2020.
There have been a number of positive outcomes from this initiative, including a quicker entry of the trucks into the disposal site, improved integrated monitoring systems that facilitate the work of registry staff, and the elimination of violations such as a deliberate increase in the amount of waste coming into the disposal sites, and multiple registrations of a single trip to get fraudulent compensation. The project has had a very interesting effect on anti-fraud and anti-corruption behavior.
B. Munkhbayar, a specialist at the Department of Environmental Pollution and Waste Management in the Mayor’s Office, said:
"Prior to the project, waste trucks were manually registered at the city’s disposal sites. During this time, violations such as deliberately increasing the weight of the truck, overlapping the registration of trucks arriving at the sites, and increasing the number of shifts were repeated over 60 times a month. To ensure the sustainability of the project, the General Manager of Ulaanbaatar mandated that the Municipal Landscaping Office (responsible for the operation of the disposal sites and all waste collection and transportation companies) only register waste trucks by the license plate number camera and RFID system at disposal sites. As a result, previous violations and errors have been eradicated, resulting in average savings of more than 130 million MNT a year".
Within the framework of the WCTM project, regulations and standards are being developed to improve the legal environment for waste management. This new legal framework is being introduced to the public and relevant organizations. Simultaneously, a pilot project is being undertaken to sort waste at the source and transport segregated waste to encourage waste reduction and recycling. The implementation of this pilot project will create an efficient model for sorting and transporting Ulaanbaatar’s segregated waste.
In addition, a full analysis of the current costs and efficiency of the financial activities of waste collection and transportation companies in Chingeltei and Songinokhairkhan districts was conducted to facilitate their financial stability. By enforcing provisions in the Law on Waste, a per person waste fee has been calculated (without subsidies) and introduced to district administrators and relevant offices and departments through training and handbooks on calculating fees for cost-based waste services. The results of these measures are forthcoming.
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